In America, the greatest country in the world, it is estimated that in any given week there are over two hundred thousand children who have no place to call home. Over forty percent of them are under the age of five. And every night, thousands of mothers have to watch their babies go to sleep in homeless shelters (the lucky ones), in old cars, and even under bridges, all the while praying that tomorrow will bring a safer place to bed their offspring.

In every state of the union this nightly scenario is played out over and over, for homelessness isn't strictly an adult problem, it's a kid's problem--one that grows bigger and more critical with each passing day.

Why are there so many homeless children? Children who have no home to call their own; no bed to sleep in and dream of the Sugar Plum fairy and what wonderful adventures tomorrow might bring. The homeless child can't have such thoughts, because through no fault of their own, they have been plotted as players in a society that no longer cares, and chooses to ignore them as if they don't exist.

All the statistics in the world cannot give the true picture of a child without a home, without a safe bed to lay his little head on each night as he says his prayers to his mother and father, because these are children we are dealing with, not numbers, children--who live, and breathe, who have needs, and desires. Physically they are small, but the same pain you feel as adults, they feel. The cold winds of winter chill them right down to their bones. And many shake in the cold without a place to call home, and without anyone to care.

The nature of homelessness among children is so diverse that there are ten classifications used by the U.S. Department of Education to categorize it. Too many children in America become homeless because of their parent's loss of a job, or of their having such a low paying job that they can't pay all their bills. Unfortunately, one of the first things to go is the family's residence. When the choice is between paying the rent or mortgage and putting food or medicine in your child's mouth, any parent would choose the latter.

The number of homeless children has double dover the past decade, and with major budgets looming, the situation looks to grow far worse. In New York City alone, the number of homeless families sleeping in shelters or in the streets is staggering. On any given night, there are over nine thousand families who have no permanent place to call home. And these nine thousand families have over sixteen thousand children without their own safe bed. These kids, along with their mothers and fathers, comprise seventy-eight percent of New York City's homeless population--the fortunate ones who are able to find a hot meal and shelter.

These children have a right to receive the same benefits as any other kid when it comes to entering the public school system. And each morning, thousands of homeless school age children face another day of struggle, trying to get an education.

The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act was passed by Congress in 1987 as a result of lawsuits filed and won by families whose children were denied school enrollment because they had no permanent residency address. The passage of this new law required every state to count the number of homeless children within their jurisdiction. Each state appointed a coordinator who was put in charge of implementing the act, but getting an accurate count of these kids was no easy task.

In 1990, the McKenny Act was amended to increase funding to each state, which in turn should have allowed each state to allocate grants to local educational agencies to carry out direct services to homeless children. However, since the amendment's passage, no state has received the full amount of the funding allocated by the law. For example, in 1991, The EHCY (Education of Homeless Children and Youth) funding level was just $35 million dollars. Dividing $35 million by200,000 needy school age children equals $175.00 per child, hardly enough to by books, clothes, lunches, transportation, let alone hire and pay teachers! And to top it all off, only three percent of the state programs receive any McKenney funds for after school support systems.

In every state in the union, the number of school age kids is on the rise, and it isn't just budget cuts or lack of permanent residency that prevents many homeless children and youth from attending school. Some families wander from city to city and from state to state in the hopes of finding work that will pay enough for them to get a permanent place to live. Their children end up being placed in many different schools within the school year, often losing grades, immunization records and other needed documents, such as birth certificates and guardianship papers, along the way.

These barriers for school enrollment were addressed by the McKenney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, as re-authorized by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB)Act of 2001, which "Requires the Secretary of Education to develop, issue, and publish in the Federal Register, no later than sixty days after the date of the NCLB Act, school enrollment guidelines that describe (1) successful ways that a State can assist local education agencies (LEAs) in immediately enrolling homeless children and youth in school; and (2) how a State can review its requirements regarding immunization and medical or school records and make whatever revisions are appropriate and necessary to immediately enroll homeless children and youth in school".

Under this act, states are required to remove or correct any laws, practices, regulations, and policies that present limitation to children enrolling in schools. This includes transportation, lost medical and school records, guardianship and birth certificate barriers. The NCLB Act of 2001 mandates that no child shall be denied all that an education entails, including speedy admittance to school.

All this is wonderful; but unfortunately the NCLB Act does not guarantee that the allocated funds will reach the kids who desperately need them. And in 2003, with bankrupt states slashing school budgets, things are getting worse. Who is going to explain to a nine or thirteen year old homeless kid in the Bronx that she can't go to school because the state of New York can't afford to provide her with transportation? And that even if she could walk to school, she won't be able to get the textbooks and other school supplies she needs because the money is not there.

If and when these children ask why, what are we going to say? "Sorry, kid, your mom and dad were too poor to buy the things you need for a good education. And your government--well, they had too many other more important things on their agenda, like tax cuts so the ultra wealthy can keep their billions; and funding for some lab in God knows where so they can study the effect of bees wearing top hats when they're pollinating, in an attempt to see if their honey will be sweeter".

And yet, this nation could solve the problem of homeless kids so easily, by insisting to the people we elect to represent us that homelessness should be a thing of the past-a nasty memory-one that we will never have to taste again.

This dream can be accomplished, but it will take all of us working together as a team, as a society-- the greatest society in the world-to build homes; to demand of our government the construction of affordable housing and more schools, where each child is treated as a human being and not a statistic.

Whether you like my words or not; whether you believe my ideas or not; the truth is that we have a problem-a problem that only we can fix. A problem that will double, then quadruple, in the next ten years, if something is not done about it.

Please realize that this is all of our problem--now, not ten years from now, when these homeless babies are adults wandering the streets of New York, the streets of Miami, and the streets of L.A. Maybe we as a society didn't put them on the streets, but we sure kept them there by not fighting for their right to get an education--by not making the plight of homeless children and youth a top priority, and most of all, by ignoring them as someone else's problem.

Don't allow our most precious resource-our children--to fall through to cracks of administrations that don't care and act as if making the wealthy wealthier will ensure this country's future. Write your congressman or state representative. Order--yes, order (he/ she works for you, me, us) to make certain that each state gets their fair share of the funds allotted through the No Child Left Behind Act.

Let's work together to see that every child gets everything he or she needs to get the very best education this great land has to offer.

For more articles like this, visit the Homeless Voice at http://www.homelessvoice.org.

Make sure to donate to the homeless each time you sell a home!